Unit One: What Are the Philosophical and Historical Foundations of theAmerican Political System?

3. The Framers created a form of government that embodied both the natural rights and classical republican philosophies. What are the basic ideas of the natural rights and classical republican philosophies and how might they conflict?

• What are the similarities and differences in the purposes of government in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, and how do they relate to the natural rights and classical republican philosophies?

Unit Two: How Did the Framers Create the Constitution?

1. Anti-Federalists believed in classical republicanism, the idea that representative government dedicated to the common good could only work in small communities with similar interests. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

• How did the Federalists respond to Anti-Federalist objections to the proposed constitution?
• Why did the Anti-Federalists object to the supremacy and necessary and proper clauses of the Constitution? Explain your position on this issue.

2. In the Virginia Plan, James Madison proposed proportional representation in both houses of Congress. The delegates rejected Madison’s proposal in favor of the Great Compromise introduced by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, delegates from Connecticut. What is the Great Compromise and how was it justified? Do you think the justification is acceptable today? Explain your position.

• What has been the impact of equal representation in the Senate on our political system?
• What would be some of the benefits and costs of changing the Senate to proportional representation? Explain what position you would take on this issue.

3. Alexander Hamilton claimed that the national government was too weak during the Revolutionary War. He argued that if the states did not cooperate during a time in which they all faced extreme dangers, they were not likely to cooperate at all during times of peace and security. Therefore, a stronger national government was needed. What evidence supports Hamilton’s position?

• What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
• What were the efforts to amend the Articles of Confederation and why did they fail?

Unit Three: How Has the Constitution Been Changed to Further the Ideals Contained in the Declaration of Independence?

1. The amendment process “seems to be stamped with every mark of propriety. It guards equally against that extreme facility, which would render the Constitution too mutable; and that extreme difficulty, which might perpetuate its discovered faults.”* Do you agree or disagree with James Madison’s assessment? Why?

• What is the amendment process and what are its advantages and disadvantages?
• What amendments to the Constitution have made the country more democratic?

2. “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”* How has due process of law evolved since the Magna Carta?

• Where in the Constitution and its amendments can you find protections of your right to due process of law? What powers do they limit?

Unit Four: How Have the Values and Principles Embodied in the Constitution Shaped American Institutions and Practices?

1. Federalist 51 states that “in republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”* John Locke said, “The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands: for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot pass it over to others.”** Do you agree with these ideas? Why or why not?

3. How does the exercise of presidential power in the twenty-first century compare with the views of the Framers of the Constitution? Does the current extent of presidential power represent a threat to the constitutional system created in 1787? Why or why not?

• Have the actions of presidents represented a departure from the power asserted by their predecessors throughout American history? Why or why not?
• What are the constitutional checks upon the presidency and are they still effective?